September 13, 2021 at 6:30 PM - Budget Hearing and Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale: 
I.     Call Hearing to Order

II.   The purpose of the Hearing is to review, discuss, consider, and receive input, and or support, opposition, criticism, suggestions or observations of taxpayers relating to the 2021-22 proposed budget.

III.  Adjourn Budget Hearing
 

Rationale: 
I.     Call Hearing to Order

II.    The purpose of the Hearing is to review, discuss, consider, receive input, and hear support,opposition, criticism, suggestions or observations of taxpayers relating to the 2021-22 proposed property tax levy.

III.   Adjourn Levy Setting Hearing

Rationale: 

STRIVE  -  COMMIT  -  SUCCEED  -  District Mission Statement

Schuyler Community Schools in partnership with parents, students, and the community is committed to educate students to become skilled, knowledgeable and responsible citizens in a global society - District Vision Statement

Notice of this meeting was given in advance according to State Law 84-1411, by giving notice of the meeting to the public.  Notice of this meeting was also given in advance to all members of the Board of Education

Rationale: 

This meeting has been preceded by advance notice and is hereby declared to be in open session.  A copy of the Open Meetings Act is posted in the front of the meeting room.

Nebraska Open Meetings Act:  http://nitc.nebraska.gov/documents/statutes/NebraskaOpenMeetingsAct_current.pdf

Rationale:  Discuss, Consider and Take Action on the consent agenda

Rationale: 

Rationale:  This committee is responsible for budget, finance, and contract negotiations with administration, certificated staff, and support staff.

Rationale: 

We held our budget workshop on August 23rd and advertised the budget for all funds as directed at our final meeting.  Attached is the advertised budget notice for adoption.

Rationale: 
See attached Resolution.

Rationale: 
1.  Nancy Alarcon:  Para Educator:  SES
2.  Paola Vera:  Para Educator:  SMS
3.  Erik Kravig:  Teacher SCHS (Alternative Education)

Due to increased enrollment, we needed to expand to one more section of Kindergarten which created the movement of teachers leaving the vacancy in Alternative Education in the morning and APEX teacher in the afternoon.

Rationale: 
The Schuyler Education Association (SEA) submitted a letter requesting recognition as the exclusive bargaining agent for the district's non-supervisory certificated staff for the 2023-2024 contract year.  This is a formality that the NSEA recommends our local association get approval now for next year's negotiations process.  See attached letter. 

Rationale: 

The State of Nebraska requires that the board of education must annually approve the use of "local substitutes" to teach in absence of the regular teacher.  Local substitutes are limited to 90 days per year in the school district on an intermittent basis.  We have been using local substitutes in the past, but the Department of Education requires board minutes validating local substitute certificates.  See attached requirements for the local substitute license.
 

Rationale:  This committee is responsible for annual review of board policies, handbooks, and crisis/safety plans.  This committee is also responsible for the support and development of support programs(nursing, food service) in the district.

Rationale: 
Board policies require two readings at regular school board meetings.  This is the first reading of the new and revised policies as recommended by the board policy committee.

Over the past several months, the board policy committee has been working with Jim Luebbe, Director of Policy Services, to review our board policy manual.  Jim currently serves as Director of Policy Services. He has worked as a school board policy consultant for the Association since 2000, updating and customizing the Policy Manuals for scores of districts across the entire state. Jim  has been a member of the American Association of State Policy Services for 10 years.In addition to his work on our board policy manual, Jim also assisted our principals with the review of their handbooks to align with board policies. 

I visited with Jim Luebbe on Friday and he is sending the first draft of the updated board policies via email as it takes a while to upload them in the online system.  I will attach the policies to this agenda item when I get them. 

 

Rationale:  We have completed the public input requirement for the ESSER III application.  This application is due on Wednesday, September 15th.  These funds are to be used over the next three years.  See attached information included below. 

Rationale: 
Last Thursday, President Biden released this COVID 19 Vaccination Plan.  This plan outlines requirements for vaccinations or weekly testing for federal contractors and employees.  While this order is directed at federal contractors and employees, it does require federal departments and agencies to develop rules consistent with the Executive Order.  See attached information.

In addition, KSB is also hosting a webinar on Monday morning on a host of topics, including the Vaccination Plan.  We will begin our zoom meetings with the NDE Commissioner on Tuesday mornings. 

Rationale: 
Preschool and SES 3-5 Principal:  Mr. Comley
Staff Member/Program Spotlight:  This month I would like to highlight Adi Perez. Ms. Perez is a Full Service Community School Coordinator.  SES has partnered with the United Way to bring Ms. Perez to Schuyler and help parents and the community wherever needed. Ms. Perez's primary jobs right now is working with the Family Literacy program, Teammates, mobile food bank, and the parents of SES. Ms Perez has also been an extremely useful resource for parents and getting connected to resources in our community. Thank you Ms. Perez and welcome to Schuyler!

SES K-2 Principal's Report: Mrs. Neesen
Enrollment: Kindergarten - 117, First Grade - 108, Second Grade - 87
New Staff: Due to an influx of new Kindergartners coming into SES, we added a seventh section of Kindergarten! We were fortunate enough to add Kailey Clapper to our SES family! Kailey is coming to us from the Preschool and Early Childhood team.
Spotlight Program: The scaffold school start was a huge success again this year! Staff has shared that it has helped with the confusion and chaos that the first day brings in our building. After speaking with Kindergarten parents, they enjoyed seeing SES adults being "all hands on deck" with helping brand new families into our building. 

Dual Language, Fisher’s, & Richland Principal's Report:  Ms. Bebout
Spotlight Program:  I would like to highlight the Dual Language Program.  This is our fourth year providing a dual language program in Schuyler.  This year we were able to offer two sections of kindergarten with the addition of the new district office building.  We have two sections that are full and we have students on a waiting list!!!  We also have 1st-4th grade classes at Richland.  In this program, students learn all the curriculum in both English and Spanish, their days are split 50/50.  What an advantage this provides for students throughout their lives.  It is exciting to see how valued this program is in our district.  

Middle School Assistant Principal's Report:  Mr. Banahan
Spotlight Program: The program I would like to highlight is our Middle School band which marched in the Labor Day parade this year. Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Niedbalski, and Miss Semerad did a great job working with these 7th and 8th grade students which none had ever marched in a parade before. They did an outstanding job, and they sounded great as they marched throughout the parade. It was great seeing the crowd cheer on and encourage our young musicians as they moved through the parade route.
Spotlight Upcoming Events: We have started taking our Fall MAPs test, to give us a baseline for where our students are starting this school year in comparison to other students the same age across the country. This is important because this will be very similar to the new state testing format which starts in December. We are looking forward to seeing how our students perform, and it will allow teachers to use that data to drive their lesson planning for the upcoming lessons.

Middle School Principal's Report:  Mr. Zavadil
Program Spotlight:  School is underway and moving at a fast pace already!  One new program that the Middle School is piloting this year is our 5th period intervention/enrichment time.  This year our Middle School Bell schedule has changed by a few minutes to allow us to provide interventions and enrichments to our students and utilize our time effectively during our extended 5th period.  Students take a Renaissance STAR assessment which allows us to understand what reinforcement and enrichment that we can introduce to all of our students during this time.  As our district MTSS team continues to develop and offer guidance we plan to integrate this time with our MTSS systems.  SMS has also done a lot of work to bolster our efforts to support our teachers that are new to SMS.  We are happy with the extra contact and the new teachers seem to appreciate the added support of morning meetings.

Staff Member Spotlight:  I would like to highlight the work of Mrs. Rocha.  She is a paraprofessional in the Library and does a lot of work with our communications through the screens throughout the district and in the Cargill facility.  This year when we were checking out I-pads at the start of the Middle School year Mrs. Rocha put in quite a bit of time and effort to help this process go smoothly.  She has worked with Mrs. Hall in the library and Mr. Hall, Mr. Banahan, and myself to ensure students have the tech they need and have the insurance necessary.  It was a lot of work and we couldn’t have done it without her.
Upcoming Events:   Our district MTSS representatives have been working very hard with Dr. Gibbons on our District MTSS programs and protocols.   MAP testing is underway which will work hand and hand with MTSS and our PLC meetings to help our teachers inform our instruction with students.  

High School Assistant Principal's Report:  Mr. Steinhoff
Spotlight Staff:  I would like to recognize Paul Niedbalski. You can find Paul each morning before school starts practicing with the band. He has graciously adjusted his schedule and puts in early hours to accommodate the afternoon activities and athletics of his students. He diligently helps students prepare to perform anywhere they are needed, including leading our  beginning of the year pep rally and playing the national anthem for our home opening volleyball and football games.  Paul’s classes are engaging and full of enriching content.  I recently visited his guitar class and was impressed with the way he differentiates learners at different levels while encouraging collaboration.  His passion for music is evident and inspires excellence from his students.  He recently teamed up with Dairy Queen and is doing a "spotlight on the patio" on September 12th.  It is great to see our community and school working together!

High School Principal's Report: Dr. Sams
Spotlight Program: This month I would like to highlight the work and dedication of our teachers as they have organized into departmental professional learning communities.  Once per week, each department meets as a team during their common plan time. During the months of August and September, each professional learning community has begun a deep dive into the data from the August STAR Assessment for their students in the areas of math and reading. Department PLCs will utilize this data to best meet the needs of all learners in their classrooms.   A special thank you to our guidance counselors for the time they put into developing a schedule to allow for a common plan for each department, and to Dr. Gibbons and Mrs. Samantha Ladwig for the time and commitment they have put into assisting our teachers with PLCs. 

 

Rationale:   

K-6 Youth Sports Director's Report:  Mrs. Neesen
Enrollment: We have 87 students signed up for volleyball, with the largest group being Kindergarten with 17 athletes! There are 60 athletes ranging from third grade to sixth grade for football.
Spotlight Program: Youth Sports had a booth during Open House. We had success with students signing up, but we found that forms being sent home followed with a text was more successful than the Open House booth. What was most successful was handing out jerseys during student down time during the school day, then having them wear their jersey back to their class. Students wearing their jersey to school created a buzz and excitement about Youth Sports! 

Warrior Academy - After-School Program Director's Report:  Ms. Bebout
Spotlight Program: Warrior Academy began on August 23rd.  We started the program with around one hundred students at the elementary level and thirty at middle school.  It is wonderful to be able to operate the program normally again this year!  Students are able to vote on what clubs they would like to be in!  Being able to give students a voice in what programming they participate in is an important part of the afterschool program.  We do have a waiting list at the elementary school.  As soon as we are able to hire a few more adults, we will allow all students in the program.  We are looking forward to an amazing year!

Middle School Activities Director's Report:  Mr. Banahan
Spotlight Program: My program spotlight for this month are our Middle School fall sports teams. Currently for the fall season, we have students involved in Volleyball, Football, and Cross Country. It’s still early in our athletic season, but we’ve had some spotlight moments that have already occurred! First with Cross Country, this season we have 17 boys and 17 girls out! We ran in our own invite last Friday, and we had a good showing with our boys as we had six of our runners place in the top 10! On the girls side, Miriam D. won the Middle School girls race, and we had a good team showing. For volleyball this year, we have only played one match so far, but we were able to compete with a good Raymond Central team. We have 72 girls out for Volleyball, and we are looking to continue to improve each game we play. Middle school football, we have 28 eighth graders and 20 seventh graders out for football this season. The football teams have already gotten two games in this season. We opened the season at Crete. Our 8th grade team lost 28-20 after getting stopped on the 1 yard line as time expired. They bounced back this week with a 22-14 win over a good Milford team. The boys battled hard and never gave up, even after a few early setbacks. Our 7th grade team struggled out of the gates against Crete and lost 28-6, but they boys are ready to put up a good fight against David City on 9/9, and will hopefully bounce back like the 8th grade team.
Spotlight Upcoming Events: Upcoming Cross Country meets, Thursday 9/9 at Wahoo and Monday 9/13 at Wayne. Upcoming Volleyball games, Thursday 9/9 vs Clarkson-Leigh and 9/14 at David City. Upcoming football games, Thursday 9/9 vs David City (7th grade) and 9/16 at Lakeview

High School Activities Director's Report:  Mr. Steinhoff
Spotlight Program:  Fall sports are up and running for the 2021-2022 school year. Football, volleyball, boys and girls cross country, softball, and girls golf are all in season.  I would like to give special attention to both the boys and girls cross-country teams.  We hosted our annual cross country invite on Friday, September 3rd.  The Schuyler boys placed second and our girls placed third.   Marisol Dianda, our lead girls’ runner, won both the Schuyler invite and the Loganview Invite the week before. 

High School Student Services Director's Report:  Dr. Lefdal
Spotlight Program:  I would like to spotlight our guidance program and our staff.  The beginning of the school year can be crazy, but our counseling staff has been nothing short of exceptional.  Our counselors are Amy Johnson, Katie Bertrand, and our transition EL counselor is Brandi Zavadil.  I have watched these three staff members tackle some of the most challenging and heart-wrenching issues with grace and empathy.  We are lucky to have them on our team.

Spotlight Upcoming Event:  I am excited for the remainder of  the upcoming cross country season.  We have had some very successful meets already this season and it is exciting to see our athletes enjoying that success.

Special Education Program Director's Report: Mrs. Vrba
Program Spotlight:  Our 2021-2022 school year is starting with 230 K-12+ students receiving services from our resource teachers. At this time we have 20 children reaping the benefits our Early Childhood Program which is Birth to 4-year-olds. We have had a quick start this year with MDTs/IEPs at all of our buildings with having 23 meetings completed and another 13 scheduled for this week alone.
     With the passing of LB 527 which will be codified at Neb. Rev. Stat. § 83-1225, Nebraska statute will require transition planning to be documented in Individual Education Programs (IEPs) as required by both federal and state law and must occur in the first IEP meeting held after the student reaches the age of 14. Between the beginning of the school year to the time period until Thanksgiving, we must complete Transition Plans for students that have turned 14 or will turn 14 during 2021.  LB527 states:

• Each school district shall provide transition services for each student with a disability no later than when the student reaches fourteen years of age and until the student graduates from a special education program or no longer meets the definition of a child with a disability pursuant to section 79-1117.
• Transition services shall consist of a coordinated set of activities for a student, designed within an outcome-oriented process, which promotes movement from school to post-school activities, including post-secondary education, vocational training, integrated employment, continuing and adult education, adult services, independent living, and community participation.
• The coordinated set of activities shall be based upon the individual student's needs, taking into account, the student's preferences and interests, and shall include instruction, community experiences, the development of employment and other post-school adult living objectives, and, when appropriate, acquisition of daily living skills and functional vocational evaluation.

Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment Director's Report:  Dr. Gibbons
Spotlight Program/People:   One of our strategic plan actions for this year is to establish a district-wide Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) process.  MTSS is defined as an instructional system based on the concept that ALL students require early and powerful academic and behavioral core instruction with the potential for high-quality interventions of increasing intensity. We have a team of people from each building who met three days over the summer and then again on Wednesday, September 8th, to learn more about the process and begin building Schuyler’s model.
Spotlight Upcoming Events: The State Board of Education adopted the new English Language Arts Content Standards.  Beginning with our October PD sessions, the ELA Curriculum Team will begin re-writing our curriculum to match the standards.

Rationale: 
1.  Playground:  The playground for the Kindergarten Dual Language Kindergarten program has been installed.  Kids and families are excited for this playground.  We are planning a ribbon cutting for this area in the near future.
2. Chicago & 22nd Street Crossing:  I visited with the City Administrator and Chief of Police about a painted crosswalk on 22nd Street and Chicago.  The painted crosswalk with school crossing signs posted to make 22nd street drivers more aware of the possibility of students crossing.  Will told me he would take this request to the city council. 

Rationale: 
1.  Foundation Meeting:  Labor Day and September Meeting update.
2.  NASB Board Awards:  Board members are awarded for their advocacy efforts, participation in NASB Services and Programs, as well as attendance at NASB workshops and events. Just as board members have made a commitment to provide a quality education for students in their districts, NASB strives to provide quality resources and opportunities for its members.  There are ten total levels of achievement that carry over year to year.

• Level 1                  Schuyler Community Schools                      Guadalupe Marino
• Level 1                  Schuyler Community Schools                      Alejandrina Lanuza
• Level 1                  Schuyler Community Schools                      Renee Sayer
• Level 6                  Schuyler Community Schools                      Chuck Misek
• Level 8                  Schuyler Community Schools                      Richard Brabec